Geminid Meteor Shower

There are hundreds of meteors that streak through the atmosphere of the earth each and every day and night. There are times when the earth passes through what was the path of a comet and our atmosphere will pick up a lot of tiny specks of dust left behind from that comet. When that happens, it is called a meteor shower. There are many meteor showers every year.

The source of the Geminids shower is asteroid 3200 Phaethon , an asteroid discovered in 1983. ( Our ICSE year ). There's a cloud of dust trailing the asteroid and the Earth plows through it every year in mid-December. Bits of dust traveling at 80,000 mph hit our atmosphere and turn into glowing meteors.The Geminids got its name because its radiant position, from which it appears to originate, lies in the constellation Gemini .

The darker the sky in our viewing location, the more we can see of even the fainter meteors. If we are in a light polluted area, we will only be able to see the biggest and most bright meteors. If possible get away from city lights, generally anywhere away from the city will do . Look East towards Castor and Pollux (two brightest stars in Gemini). Meteors should appear to come from just over those two stars. If the moon is up we will need to wait until after moon set. Moon should be setting around 00:45 AM on the 14th .

The Geminid meteor shower is one of the few meteor shows that is visible to the entire earth. The best night will be tomorrow , the evening of December 13th through early morning of December 14th. But the radiant is highest around 2 a.m., so the morning hours are the usually the most productive. We do not need any optical equipment. Meteors are best viewed with our
naked eyes.

All we need is a lawn chair that lays all the way back, a blanket and passion . We may see as many as two meteors a minute on average if we have a very dark sky and are watching after midnight.

Remember,meteor showers can occur several days prior, and several days after, their projected peak time .